Easterfest is a concert, well actually it's not just a concert, (but I'll tell you more in a bit!) that is put on every Easter weekend. It is the biggest Christian event in the southern hemisphere (I think) and it's actually on in the little city of Toowoomba, would you believe! (toowoomba's where I live for those of you who are new.)
People from all around Australia and some overseas come to this big event each Easter to hear music! So the whole three days aren't just concerts, it's like a fair. There's rides, many stalls selling CDs and other Christian music things and interviews and people singing to entertain the guests. The main thing of it all is that many Christian music bands come to Easterfest to perform there in front of crowds of thousands! Some international bands come and perform too, so it's quite exciting! There was Switchfoot, Article One, Paul Colman Trio, Rapture Ruckus, Darlene Zschech and so many more! I had never gone before, so this was my first time. I went camping with a family from my church, who were helping out backstage, so we were crew! I took my camera and photographed many things there for you all to get a better idea of it all. (as well as us friends just having fun!)
friends
the ride, 'avalanche' that we went on so many times
more friends
a singer
the big concert on Friday night
(this one taken by my friend, Cassie.)
an interview on Article One
This is from Friday night concert. It was extremely loud!
This was in the guest lounge area. Where my friend Melanie's parents were working. They served the guest artists refreshments just before they went on stage! Melanie and I were allowed in the guest lounge to rest whenever we wanted to as we were crew : )
And this is when there was a HUGE downpour on Saturday night that resulted in something shocking and so unexpected! (more on this! scroll down.)
And this is everyone in the pavilion tent near the entrance trying to get under cover as the rain raged on outside! You can see the rain pouring down from the top of the tent down to the ground!
So sorry about the bad quality of the filming!
You aren't going to believe what happened! There was so much rain in an hour that it started to flood!! Literally! Outside there was water everywhere up to our ankles and where the main stage was and everyone had been an hour before was water like a river! The pavilion tent, (where pretty much everyone was) started to leak and then the crew realised it was going to split, so they had to evacuate everyone out as soon as possible! So the family I was camping with, plus another girl we knew who we had found are rushing out of the tent in the now river Queens Park to get out before the big tent (half an acre long and hugely tall) collapses! We then went to out tents in the crew camping grounds to find Melanie's and my tent flooding (her parent's was fine) and we had to grab everything out and put it in the other tent! I was running in bare feet because I had lost my shoes in the pavilion tent and all of us are soaked to the skin trying to contact people to get us out of here! (most of the entrances were blocked off and one car had bogged in the overflowing water from the river)
a couple days later...
Right now, I'm writing this post! Easterfest is in a HUGE mess! The pavilion tent completely went (no injuries or lives lost!) everyone was evacuated in time and I now have all my stuff back from our flooding tent! Easterfest did not continue on Sunday (obviously) which was a great disappointment, but we had people who's tents had been flooded staying at our church and lots of equipment drying there as well. The guest lounge area was completely destroyed! The TV disappeared and many things were broken. (and I have not found my shoes!) But God is still great! And in control and everyone's happy, right?!
Now I understand that was an awful lot of writing, photos and videos and that most of you Followers probably did not in the least find that interesting, so I'm sorry! It was more for my friends and people who live in Toowoomba, so they can know what happened : )
p.s. tomorrow I'm starting back the 30 Day blog Challenge! (squeal) I hope you're as excited as I am : )
p.p.s. both my blog buttons are finally fixed thanks to Bec! Please head over here to copy and paste them.
I heard a lot of that from Mackenzie, but it was intresting to hear about it first hand. Our church hosted 500 people who evacuated from Queen's park and Dad and Joshua also helped with the clean up, so we have hered a lot about the events of the day. But as I said earlier, I enjoyed hearing about it first hand. I actually read it out loud to my family. ( :
ReplyDeleteHi Holly,
ReplyDeleteYeah, I actually think that I've heard about Easterfest before. Even though I'm not really into Christian music, I would love to come to it one day.
Perhaps next year I will go and stay with Lauren and we can go to the festival together, how fun - and I could meet you!!!
Thanks for the post, it's really interesting!
Izi : )
Wow! looks like fun. :)
ReplyDeleteI recognize one of your friends from one of the girls in my choir. The last video and she is the girl who came up to you. What is her name again?
If you're talking about the girl with the short brown hair, that's Maddie. She goes to my church. The other girl there was Melanie, who also goes to my church : )
ReplyDeleteHe Izi,
ReplyDeleteThat would be lovely to see you nect year! I've heard that Easterfest 2012 is going to be pretty amazing!
Thanks for the compliment : )
OK I think I recognize the name as well!
ReplyDelete